


The Beauty of Bankruptcy

by LewdPointyNoses



Category: Kaiji, 賭博黙示録カイジ | Tobaku Mokushiroku Kaiji | Ultimate Survivor Kaiji (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Emotional, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Falling In Love, Family Drama, Getting to Know Each Other, Intense, M/M, Moving In Together, Porn With Plot, Slow Burn, Sweet, Vanilla, boukai, fkmt - Freeform, kaiji - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-05-21 22:18:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14923881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LewdPointyNoses/pseuds/LewdPointyNoses
Summary: Suddenly, Kazuya stood in front of Kaiji's door. He wanted to move in, as some crisis had happened. Kaiji sighed: However calm this day had started, it certainly was over now.[Emotional Hurt/Comfort | Slow Burn | With a lot of feelings, love and passion.]





	The Beauty of Bankruptcy

The morning sun shined through the smudged windows and the instant noodles fizzled softly as Kaiji poured hot water over them. “Yum. Breakfast.” He mumbled, staring into the plastic cup. Putting the electric kettle back on its designated place in the tiny kitchen, Kaiji wandered back to his low table in the middle of the room and let himself fall to the ground - sitting listlessly in front of his tiny, cheap dinner.

  
“Hooaah...” Kaiji yawned. These past few days really had been uneventful. Nothing was happening. No phone calls, no mail, no visitors. Truly peaceful, with a hint of ever present boredom. He picked up the remote and switched on his little TV. He didn’t even feel like watching it, he just stared at the screen, waiting for his noodles to get ready. “We continue Special Broadcast for today… Financial sector... Crumbling Economy... Big Crash...” he only listened absentmindedly and looked at his scarce dinner again. These news were all unimportant stuff to him. “Tch, I’m feeling the financial crisis over here too...!” he chuckled while looking around his room. Still the same cramped space, small and tiny. The carpet sure needed some vacuuming, the piling dishes in the sink needed a washing up, and his bed was a mess of linen and used clothes.

  
Just as he picked up his chopsticks to eat, he heard furious knocking at his door. He flinched around. ‘Furious’ was even too weak, this was a hailstorm of knocks. Annoyed, Kaiji stood up, and yelled at the entrance: “I have a doorbell as well!” Sighing loudly, he dragged his feet over there. “Who disturbs me this early?” he asked himself, and opened the door a little bit, looking through the gap.

  
Only an inch in front of him was the sweaty, disturbed face of Kazuya. “Aah!” Kaiji was startled, then shook his head and opened the door fully. “Kazuya, what is it-“  
He looked at Kazuya. His glasses askew, his hair in disorder, wearing four suit jackets over each other, each a different shade of blue, two scarves at the same time that were twisted around into a strange silky braid, panting, blushing, probably from running too much, his eyes wide and distressed. A big trolley suitcase stood behind him, way too overfilled with clothes and different things sticking out of it. His posture suggested some form of fight-or-flight sentiment, on edge, his hands up, ready for everything.

  
“KAIJI!” he suddenly yelled, his voice far too high and broken. “Whah!” flinched Kaiji backwards, frightened by the sudden loud noise. Kazuya was hysterical, gesturing all over the place, not forming sentences, completely gone off the rails. “KAIJI - TEIAI BANKRUPT - WE LOST EVERYTHING - ALL GONE - NO MORE MONEY - JUST **POOF** GONE - AAAARGH - CAN I LIVE AT YOUR PLACE?!” “Whoa-whoa, calm down there, Kazuya, come inside first!” Kaiji was worried and took shivering Kazuya by his shoulder and led him inside. “NNNNnnngh!” exclaimed Kazuya through clenched teeth. However calm this day had started, it was now over. Kaiji gave a heartfelt sigh.

~ ~ ~

  
Kaiji opened the window, threw a few things on his bed to make more room, and slid some magazines and books under the bed. After going to the kitchen part of his tiny flat, he came back, placed a cup of tea in front of Kazuya and sat down, on the opposite side of the low table. “Ok, now, Kazuya. What happened? Start at the beginning.” Kazuya seemed to have calmed down a bit, but was still tense, sitting wide-eyed and quadruple-suited in front of Kaiji with his fingers repeatedly tapping the table top.

“Listen, Kaiji, you know my dad, right? … Yeah, of course you know him, with your fingers and your ear and stuff, anyways, he has the Teiai company, which is this gigantic conglomerate of companies, and they all do different stuff, I dunno what exactly, something with finance and economy,” Kazuya did a little off-hand finger flutter, “And just this morning! I woke up! And…  A-And all was gone! All the stocks had crashed! Don’t ask me what goes on exactly in the company, but it was bad! Very bad!” He sat more upright, shifting his position. “I woke up this morning and everything was in chaos. Blacksuits running around the mansion, some people packing in stuff, others were carrying big important-looking folders from dad’s office. I was only in my morning robe, looking at this mayhem unfolding around me. I asked one of our lieutenants, who simply pointed at the big flatscreen in the living room, and the financial news running on it. I was shocked! Such a thing has never happened!” He paused, and then clapped his hands together in a bright manner. “So, er, yeah, I will be staying with you, I think, until all of this blows over!”

 

He smiled widely, with that grin that went from ear to ear, but the smile didn’t fully carry to his eyes, which still seemed a bit… sad and twitchy behind his tinted glasses. It also didn’t fit with his erratic initial door knocking. Kaiji grew suspicious for a second, then sighed. There was no point in denying Kazuya’s request, he would pester him anyways, and somewhere, he could understand him. Staying in a house that was in an all-out chaos was neither comfortable, nor healthy, and knowing Kazuya’s family, they sure weren’t a lot of help either. “Kazuya… Yeah, sure, if you want to stay here, you can, but… Why are you not staying in any of the houses, hotels or places your father owns?” Kazuya immediately shook his head. “I have no clue what belongs to us anymore or what can be sold off in any second, probably with me still inside if I stayed somewhere. Partners and investors are leaving us like rats fleeing a sinking ship. Which we are, financially speaking.” He adjusted his glasses. “It’s not looking well, so I want to stay somewhere independent.”

“And your first thought was to come to me?” asked Kaiji, his eyebrow lifted. He couldn’t quite believe that Kazuya would choose this dinghy flat over any other luxurious place, even something “standard” would probably be more spacious and comfortable that this messy room. “Wahahahaha! Yes, of course, no one would come and look for me here!” laughed Kazuya, quickly pointing around the room. “I’m not hiding or anything, don’t worry, I just need a calm place to gather my thoughts and do some plans for the future. … And I do enjoy your company too, after all!” he added with a joyful tone. “Pfff.” Scoffed Kaiji. It was true that they enjoyed each other’s company, but it had never truly clicked. Kaiji was sure that he would fall for Kazuya, romatically even - but so far, his brattish nature and larger than life behaviour had been an obstacle in this relationship. It was more a careful friendship than a proper one, but still, Kaiji’s heart was too big to let Kazuya stand outside in his uncertain situation. There was probably a lot more to this story, but for the time being, having some company wasn’t maybe that bad. And maybe he would get to know another side of Kazuya better.

“Fine then.” Kaiji said, folding his arms, “You can stay here for a while, I have a futon for you. But you need to help with the chores and with the rent!” Kazuya eyed beamed, and his smile became wider. That looked like a genuine smile now, Kaiji noticed, and equally smiled.

They both stood up, and Kaiji held out his hand to shake on it, but Kazuya straight up ignored it and went for a big hug. “Thank you so much, Kaiji!!!” he blurted out, his arms wrapped around him tightly. Kaiji blinked a few timed in surprise at this sudden heart-warming proximity, but gently put his arms around him as well to give him a few light shoulder pats. “No worries, Kazuya, I think it’ll all go well.”

As they parted, Kaiji could feel the tips of Kazuya’s fingers brushing along his back a little bit longer, as if caressing him with thankfulness. “Ok, let’s get you set up, Kazuya, right?” Kaiji sighed, clapping his hands together. Kazuya hurried to the door to get his chaotic suitcase, but Kaiji stopped him by tapping him on his shoulder. “Kazuya, in the name of all that is holy… will you please get those multiple suits off you first?”

“Oh!” Kazuya gasped in a high tone, he seemed to have forgotten it. One after the other, he took off his multiple blue suit jackets and hung them on Kaiji’s only chair. “How did you end up like that anyway? Was your departure so hasty? I’m surprised that your suitcase didn’t break, too!” The last of the silk scarves slid off Kazuya’s shoulder and he quickly caught it, folding it up and putting it on the chair too as he spoke: “Well… It was a bit hasty, yeah… It was a real shock waking up to this… absolute madness, so I packed all my things as quickly as I could and ran off.”

He took out his phone and looked at it for a second, then slid it back into his pocket, patting it twice. “Yeah, I’m sure my father will call me soon to tell me how everything will continue.” Kazuya smiled lightly and got back to getting his suitcase. With a big swing and a groan, it landed on Kaiji’s bed.

Curious to see what was even in there, Kaiji stood next to Kazuya, who was already fiddling with the code lock. With a gentle “click” it opened, and promptly all hell broke loose. The suitcase sprung open from this massive amount of … just THINGS it held, that Kaiji and Kazuya were overflooded with a wave of crumpled clothes that flew out.

In fact, it was just clothes. With a few strange objects that Kaiji spotted now. “Kazuya, why is there a vase in there?” he asked flatly, picking one of Kazuya’s briefs off his shoulder. “Oh, not quite sure, I thought it was maybe important…?” The rest was equally a strange array of objects: a single ballpoint pen, a packaged hotel soap, a pulpy romance novel, half a bottle of cough medicine, and a simple pillow with linen on it, which seemed to take a lot of space. The rest was clothes. Lots and lots of clothes. Kaiji began to suspect that Kazuya had simply opened his wardrobe, which was probably very big, and had stuffed everything inside that he could grab, including everything from his nightstand and the pillow from his own bed.

“Ok, let’s just… leave everything in there and take out what we need for today.” Tried Kaiji to reduce the mess in his already messy room, as he now noticed that Kazuya’s fresh clothes had mixed with Kaiji’s used ones all over the bed and floor.

 

This was going to be one adventure, for sure.

 

Both Kaiji and Kazuya cleaned up the room, found storage space for the suitcase under Kaiji’s bed and took out the futon for later, (Kazuya putting his own pillow proudly on top), when Kaiji wondered about a detail and asked: “Kazuya, where are your washbag?”

Kazuya’s face was puzzled, his big eyes radiating a question back: “A what?” Kaiji tilted his head, in equal confusion. “A washbag, like… you know, toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, maybe a little towel, some cream, some… whatever other daily things you need?” “Oh…!” noticed Kazuya, and after a beat, he pointed at the table. “I… I got that one hotel soap that I kept from my last visit at one, because it smelled good. … I normally just have some blacksuits buy me some stuff for the night, I dunno, they get me the things, I don’t really know what all of these bottles and pots are for anyway. What do they even know, hah! I just leave them in the hotel room when I check out, maybe the cleaning ladies take them after me then, they could never afford products like that, wow, how generous I am, bwahahahaha!”

His hearty laughter died quicker than Kaiji expected. “Haha… Ha. Sure could use some of those now.” His lips pursed, Kazuya was pondering for a second. A second that seemed to last an eternity, as his world got a tiny little crack, unnoticed, yet there – a crack that maybe, just maybe, wouldn’t go away anymore. "Hmmm..." wondered Kazuya with a deep unwavering hum, his eyebrows knitting together as he stared at his single hotel soap that smelled so nice.

Kaiji in the meantime understood even more: Kazuya’s attitude and lifestyle would be one big hurdle they needed to overcome if they wanted to live together for a while now.

Trying to brighten up Kazuya and to get some things rolling, Kaiji patted Kazuya’s shoulder and said with a smile: “Come on, Kazuya, let’s go to the supermarket and buy a few things for the week, mmh?” Kazuya snapped out of his thoughts, and his face lit up at the prospect of going shopping. “Oh, perfect! Good idea, let’s get myself some equipment!”

To take Kazuya’s mind off his situation and going on a shopping quest would be something good for the early morning, surely.

 

~ ~ ~

 

As Kaiji closed the door behind him with his jangly keys, he was happy for a second. Maybe even if this was a hasty and unplanned visit, he appreciated it a lot. Getting to know Kazuya a bit more and showing him the ways of “normal” life would be a fulfilling week or so for both of them. “You ready Kazuya?” he asked. “Yeah!” nodded Kazuya, the sunlight brightening his tinted glasses so far that Kaiji could see his big, friendly eyes clearly for the first time this morning.

And as they went down the creaking metal stairs in the morning sunshine towards the city, Kaiji was sure that absolutely nothing would go wrong today.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!  
> This is the first time I write a proper multi-chapter fanfic, and I look forward to a story with longer buildup and pay-off! I hope you enjoy the slower burn too! (Explicit content will come later, but the rating is already put in place!)
> 
> Visit me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/LewdPointyNoses) for updates and ravings, or write me on Discord, Lepon#2891!


End file.
